Canada’s major cities are becoming increasingly dangerous places to live as they continue to see increases in sexual assault and violent crime rates, according to a new study from the Macdonald Laurier Institute.
The Canadian think tank released its Urban Violent Crime Report on Tuesday, which revealed that the country’s city streets are becoming increasingly unsafe.
The report used police-reported violent crime data recorded from 2014 to 2023 and found that murder was up in five of Canada’s nine biggest urban population centres in 2023.
“We analyze 10 years of police-reported violent crime data on homicide, aggravated assault, sexual assault, and robbery in order to explore violent crime trends in nine major cities that comprise one-third of the Canadian population,” reads the report.
Those cities include Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Peel Region, Toronto, York Region, Ottawa, and Montreal.
There has been a sharp rise in violent sexual assaults in the Greater Toronto Area in recent years, with the rate nearly doubling in York Region from 2016 to 2023, increasing from 28 to 55.2 per 100,000.
Peel Region also saw over a 30% rise in sexual assaults, going from 38 to 52 per 100,000.
However, it was Edmonton and Winnipeg that had the highest level of sexual assaults in Canada, with over 100 per 100,000.
“Sexual assaults were up in every city we looked at,” the report’s co-author Dave Snow told National Post in an interview. “This was by far our most consistent finding.”
There was a major crimesurge in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, including violent acts of robbery, such as carjacking and muggings, which steadily increased into last year.
Every major city across the country saw a jump in robberies last year except for Vancouver.
However, Snow says, “we can’t blame (the spike in robberies) on COVID anymore” as pandemic lockdowns were lifted in March 2022, while the trend of increased personal thefts only became exacerbated the following year.
That spike was most felt in Winnipeg, which was home to a robbery rate that nearly tripled the rate of any other major city last year, with 305.9 of 100,000 residents falling prey to the city’s growing problem.
According to the report, Winnipeg was Canada’s most dangerous city last year, with a murder rate of 5.97 per 100,000.
However, Edmonton reported the most aggravated assaults of anywhere in the country, at 38.72 per 100,000.
Excluding Toronto, city crime trended upward in a westward fashion, as western cities saw the highest levels of crime.
MacDonald-Laurier Institute deputy director of domestic policy Peter Copeland said the report’s statistics should have policymakers rethinking sentencing guidelines in regard to violent offences.
“While governments need to address various factors affecting crime — such as improving rehabilitation programs — stronger sentences for the most serious crimes are also an important aspect of criminal justice reform,” Copeland told the National Post.
He also addressed the fact that courts have become more likely to overturn mandatory minimum sentences in recent years.
“In the absence of judicial or sentencing reform, a future federal government may consider the use of a tool like the notwithstanding clause,” said Copeland.
